KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 ― Turkish author and columnist Mustafa Akyol, who was detained overnight here, could not understand the local religious authority’s summons as it was in Bahasa Malaysia, the Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) said today.

The IRF, who recently organised three events featuring the prominent writer in Kuala Lumpur, also said officials from the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) did not explain to Akyol the consequences of not turning up for questioning when they talked to him in both English and Malay after he spoke at a roundtable discussion last Sunday on apostasy.

"It was not my duty to translate the summons to Akyol. He is not a Malay-Muslim who resides in the Federal Territory,” IRF founder Ahmad Farouk Musa told Malay Mail Online.

"Jawi’s jurisdiction is restricted by this as shown in the case against Kassim Ahmad,” he added.

Kassim, a Malaysian Muslim intellectual who lives in Kedah, was acquitted last month of Shariah charges of insulting Islam after the civil courts found that Jawi had acted illegally in various actions against Kassim — including using a defective warrant to cross the borders to arrest him. Shariah law in Malaysia is under state, not federal jurisdiction.

Akyol, author of Islam without extremes: A Muslim case for liberty, a 2011 book that argues for Islamic liberalism, was detained by the police Monday night after immigration authorities prevented him at the airport from boarding his flight. He was released after Jawi questioned him yesterday morning.

Jawi said in a statement yesterday that it had applied to the Kuala Lumpur Shariah Court to issue a warrant of arrest after Akyol failed to turn up for questioning over his involvement in the roundtable talk on apostasy. The religious department also claimed speakers must obtain official credentials before talking about Islam.

According to the Malay-language Jawi summons sighted by Malay Mail Online, the religious department ordered Akyol to attend an interview last Monday at 9am in its office as part of its investigation on "teaching religion without credentials” under Section 11 of the Shariah Criminal Offences (Federal Territories) Act 1997.

Farouk told Malay Mail Online that Jawi had demanded the cancellation of Akyol’s public lecture on "the Islamic Jesus”, scheduled at Nottingham University’s Malaysian campus here last Monday at 2.30pm.

"We reluctantly cancelled despite droves of people coming to Nottingham University,” he said.

Despite Jawi claiming yesterday that it had received complaints about Akyol’s involvement in the roundtable discussion titled "Does Freedom of Conscience Open The Floodgates to Apostasy?” at the Royal Selangor Golf Club, Farouk pointed out that the religious authorities had attended the forum.

"How come they were so effective that they were there to listen to Akyol’s talk when a complaint should have been filed after a talk for the content of the talk? And they made it clear that the Jesus talk is going to be more controversial,” said Farouk.

The head of the Muslim group said Akyol safely departed Malaysia last night.

"And Jawi did not pay for the flight. It was the organisers. The flight was KL-Istanbul-Boston,” said Farouk.

"This high-handedness of Jawi in handling this issue and the seemingly overarching principle in interpreting the law was simply regrettable and the Gestapo-like action of the Jawi officers portrayed the sad and depressing state of religious establishment in this country.”

G25 member Datuk M. Redzuan Kushairi stressed that Akyol was not "teaching” about Islam.

"It was an intellectual discourse and discussion,” Redzuan told Malay Mail Online.

"The sad thing about this episode of overzealousness on the part of Jawi is their ignorance that Mustafa Akyol is a well known and respected Islamic scholar and well received in the West, one of the very few who is fighting against Islamophobia in the West.

"And he always promotes Islam as a religion of peace, tolerance and moderation, and that democracy is compatible with Islam,” added the member of the pro-moderation group of retired senior civil servants.